Palmer Faces in the Crowd

Guided Reflection for Nominated Students

What is your full name? Is there any particular significance to your name? Do you have a nickname, and if you do, what is the significance of that name?

Edwin Daniel Sandoval Cruz

Nickname:

Hamstah, because my friends and I were coming up with nicknames for everyone we know, and we were on the Internet and a picture of a hamster came up and they all thought it looked like me.

Tell your life story up until now. What is your beginning, what is the middle, and what is your current story? Highlight important features, like where you were born, important milestones, etc. Be sure to discuss the significance of these things.

I was born in Honduras on December 8, 1991. I was the third child born in my family, and I have an older brother and older sister. When I was ten months old my father left Honduras to come to the United States; when I was three my mother also came to the States to seek a better life for her children. My brother, sister and I lived with my grandparents. I remember this being a rough time, and being without both my parents made it even more difficult. Soon after my mother arrived in the U.S. she met my stepfather, and both of them started sending money for us to attend school and to help put food on the table.

When I was ten years old, my mom and stepdad traveled to Honduras to move my sister and I back with them. My brother had gone four years earlier. Leaving my grandparents was very difficult as they were the only parents I had ever really had. Although I was so young when she left, and I couldn’t even remember what she looked like, seeing my mom again was a very exciting moment in my life. A year after that I met me father for the first time.

When I arrived in Colorado, I started school. I attended Jefferson Elementary for 5th grade, then went to East Middle School for grades 6-8. I came to Palmer because my brother and sister did, and it is at Palmer where I have learned and grown the most. I’m proud of how I have done in school, how I have made the right choices, and how I have done everything I can to be sure I have the chance to go to college and make my parents proud. My mom and stepdad have supported me every step of the way, and in every way they can.

I’m sure that when people look at me they can’t imagine what I’ve gone through to be here, how much I have to do on my own to be who I am, and they couldn’t begin to imagine what my mother had to do to leave a third world country where there were no opportunities for her children to get a good education, have a career, and to be someone.

Looking at your life story up until now, what are some of the most important lessons you have learned along the way? Describe a memory or group of memories, an experience, or a person that helped to shape the lessons that have come to help define who you are. Feel free to describe several of these.

Some of the most important lessons I have learned so far in my life are that respect is very important: if you want respect you have to earn it and not demand it. Also, I have learned to think about my actions, and to understand that my actions have consequences, and that those consequences affect the people around me.

The most important lesson I’ve learned, though, is to appreciate what I have. I have memories of being a kid in Honduras and not having what most kids do have and may not appreciate. I had one pair of black shoes in Honduras, that I only wore when I went to the city with my grandma or to school, but when I was at home I was always barefoot. I had one uniform that I wore every day to school, and when the left pocket ripped off after being washed too many times I still wore it because it was all I had. I didn’t have toys growing up – instead I played with sticks and a bike wheel. I managed to find a soccer ball every once in a while, but it wasn’t a nice one like you see at the park. And the food we ate every day was nothing fancy – beans and rice and fried plantains. From two eggs my grandmother would feed the four people in our family, and every once in a while we would eat meat, but we never complained because you always know what the situation was. When my mom get to the U.S. and sent us money things got better.

All of those memories help me appreciate what I have now. I am old enough now to work and pay for nice things, and I know how hard it is to want things you can’t have because you can’t afford it. I appreciate now all the nice things I have.

You have been identified as someone who has overcome obstacles, or has set himself apart in some way. What, do you suppose, inspired that nomination and recognition? Step into the shoes of the person who nominated you. What do they see in you that classifies you this way?

I think people see in me that I am the kind of person who wants to do more in life, the kind of person that doesn’t want to follow bad trends, and the kind of person who is independent but still knows you sometimes need help. I worked so hard through high school, and in general I am a hard working kid with dreams that he wants to have come true. I take pride in what I do, and I am a nice person, a person who will always offer help without expecting anything in return.